Condensed Matter Seminar Series
Time-Reversal-Invariant Topological Superconductivity
Fan Zhang
University of Pennsylvania
Tuesday March 25, 11:30 am, Room 298, Physics Building
Abstract: The discovery of topological band insulators has created a revolution in
condensed matter physics. We generalize the essential idea of band
inversion and symmetry protection to experimentally feasible
superconducting systems with time-reversal symmetry. When such a
one-dimensional system becomes topological nontrivial, a Majorana
Kramers pair appears on the boundary, producing quantized tunneling
conductance plateaus and unprecedented fractional Josephson effects.
The latter effects have two significant implications: (i) the existence
of a "periodic building" unifying all the free-fermion topological
systems and (ii) the possibility of fractionalization in
superconductors.
Host: Harold Baranger